Ambassador Alvin

Tēnā koutou,

I am Alvin the LEARNZ ambassador. I go on all the trips with Shelley and help look after the other ambassadors from your schools. This is going to be a fantastic field trip to our capital city Wellington where we will discover more about how New Zealand's first smart motorway is being constructed.

I'm looking forward to seeing how some amazing technology can be used to improve our roads.

See you soon,

Alvin.

Monday 29th February

Kia ora,

It seems like such a long time since my last field trip so I have really been looking forward to this trip. I always enjoy spending time in Wellington and am keen to find out more about how a motorway is made smart.

I had to brave some big bumps as we flew out of Dunedin but at least the strong southerly winds made for a quick flight north. We were lucky enough to arrive early in Wellington so we had time to explore. It wasn’t even windy and lots of people seemed to be enjoying the fine weather.

I can’t wait to see how the smart motorway has progressed since last year’s field trip. See you on the construction site tomorrow.

Alvin, the LEARNZ ambassador.

Tuesday 1 March

Kia ora,

I met the Mayor of Wellington today! Celia Wade-Brown is really interested in the smart motorway because she thinks it is a great way to improve the motorway without having to build a new one. It will also help make local roads safer as more cars use the motorway rather than smaller roads.

It was exciting to get out on the construction site and see how close the smart motorway is to being finished. I was impressed with how much work can happen while still keeping the road open.

Tomorrow we are going to learn about how to drive smart on a smart motorway.

See you then,

Alvin, the LEARNZ ambassador.

Wednesday 2 March

Kia ora koutou,

I never knew that so much work goes on behind the scenes to make sure something like the smart motorway works properly. Today I discovered how researchers work to find out about driver attitudes and behaviour. This information is used by advertising agencies such as Clemenger who create ads to help teach drivers how to use the new smart motorway.

I learned that having a high-tech motorway is not enough on its own. People need to know how to use the motorway and how to drive ‘smart’. Clever advertising can make this possible.

I’m looking forward to visiting the Wellington Traffic Operations Centre tomorrow to see the ‘smarts’ behind the smart motorway.

Bye for now,

Alvin, the LEARNZ ambassador.

Thursday 3 March

Kia ora,

I learned such a lot today! I didn't realise that maths can be used to make our roads work better. I met some smart people who have created some smart computer models to run the smart motorway. Maths is used to work out a formula to predict the best speed for cars to travel during different conditions.

My favourite part of today was exploring the Wellington Traffic Operations Centre or TOC for short. There was so much camera footage of our motorways and it was interesting to see how easily accidents can happen on our roads. I had no idea our roads can be monitored so closely. It’s nice to know that people are watching out for us on the roads and ready to react if something goes wrong.

Well, it has been an interesting week. I hope you have enjoyed it.

See you on another field trip soon.

Alvin, the LEARNZ ambassador.

Alvin loves travelling around New Zealand on LEARNZ field trips and is looking forward to the Smart Motorways field trip to Wellington.

Alvin enjoys a fine day exploring Wellington. Image: LEARNZ.

Alvin checks out the progress that has been made on the construction of the smart motorway. Image: LEARNZ.

Alvin visits Clemenger BBDO, the advertising agency that is working with NZTA, to teach people about how to use the new smart motorway. Image: LEARNZ.

Alvin checks out how a computer model is used to simulate cars on the smart motorway. Image: LEARNZ.

Alvin finds out how motorways are monitored at the Traffic Operations Centre. Image: LEARNZ.